I keep tucked away in my “devotional file” a little half-sheet of paper with an outline on it that I taught from almost twenty years ago. It was a short lesson I did on finding the will of God, and I utilized a portion of material from George Mueller’s autobiography in my teaching. Mueller, the great English man of God who committed his life to the care of orphans in Britain, was known as a man of prayer and faith. Here’s what I shared in my teaching handout on “Seeking God’s Will” that was directly from Mueller. I’ve shared parts of this in messages and Jym-shorts articles in the past, but I think this is another way that we might take into account what the apostle Paul exhorted us to in our passage from Colossians last Sunday when he wrote: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith…”

Mueller mentioned these attitudes of the heart that often led him to making mistakes concerning the will of God for a particular matter or situation:

1)     Lacking honesty in his heart concerning the matter

2)     Lacking uprightness before God

3)     Impatience to wait on God

4)     Preferring the counsel of men over the declarations of Scripture

Here’s how he summed up a “heart relationship” with God and learned to discern God’s will in a matter:

1)     I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own regarding a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the knowledge of what his will is.

2)     Having done this, I do not leave the results to feelings or impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3)     I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the word of God. The Spirit and the word must be combined! If I look to the Spirit alone without the word, I lay myself open again to great delusions, for my heart may tell me many things that the Spirit is not actually saying. If the Holy Spirit guides at all, he will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

4)     Next, I consider providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s will in connection with his word and Spirit.

5)     I ask God in prayer to reveal his will to me properly and in conformity with his truth and his word.

6)     Thus, (1) through prayer to God, (2) the study of his word, and (3) reflection on these disciplines, I come to a deliberate judgement according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly.

I have always found Mueller’s approach to knowing God’s will refreshing. And it is backed up by a faithful brother who served the Lord tirelessly for almost a century. He built five large orphan houses and cared for over 10,000 orphans in his life. When he began this great work in 1834 there was accommodation for 3,600 orphans in all of England. Twice that many children under eight were in debtor’s prison. You read that correctly… in prison. He managed to do this while preaching on average three times a week. At the age of seventy he left for the mission field, visiting forty-two nations, including the United States. He returned from his mission work seventeen years later, at eighty-seven, and went right back to preaching. By the time he died at age ninety-two, he had read his Bible an estimated 200 times, prayed in millions of dollars for orphan ministry, and had never once been in debt of any kind. He did not accept a salary for the last sixty-eight years of his life. He never once during his ministry asked people directly for funding. He lost two wives and two children of his own during those years, so it was not as if he led an ivory-tower life. He was, simply stated, a man of God. Therefore, in my opinion, his advice on knowing God’s will and walking in Christ, although not perfect, is sound and worthy of our consideration.

I hope you find his advice helpful to you. I am pleased that I ran across the handout again this week. It encouraged and taught me as it did in the past.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Jym

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